Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability

The ability to recognize people by their voice is an important social behavior. Individuals differ in how they pronounce words, and listeners may take advantage of language-specific knowledge of speech phonology to facilitate recognizing voices. Impaired phonological processing is characteristic of...

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Main Authors: Perrachione, Tyler, Del Tufo, Stephanie N., Gabrieli, John D. E.
Other Authors: Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102420
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9149-1815
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author Perrachione, Tyler
Del Tufo, Stephanie N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
author2 Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
author_facet Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Perrachione, Tyler
Del Tufo, Stephanie N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
author_sort Perrachione, Tyler
collection MIT
description The ability to recognize people by their voice is an important social behavior. Individuals differ in how they pronounce words, and listeners may take advantage of language-specific knowledge of speech phonology to facilitate recognizing voices. Impaired phonological processing is characteristic of dyslexia and thought to be a basis for difficulty in learning to read. We tested voice-recognition abilities of dyslexic and control listeners for voices speaking listeners’ native language or an unfamiliar language. Individuals with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities compared with controls only for voices speaking their native language. These results demonstrate the importance of linguistic representations for voice recognition. Humans appear to identify voices by making comparisons between talkers’ pronunciations of words and listeners’ stored abstract representations of the sounds in those words.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1024202022-09-23T09:39:32Z Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability Perrachione, Tyler Del Tufo, Stephanie N. Gabrieli, John D. E. Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Perrachione, Tyler Del Tufo, Stephanie N. Gabrieli, John D. E. The ability to recognize people by their voice is an important social behavior. Individuals differ in how they pronounce words, and listeners may take advantage of language-specific knowledge of speech phonology to facilitate recognizing voices. Impaired phonological processing is characteristic of dyslexia and thought to be a basis for difficulty in learning to read. We tested voice-recognition abilities of dyslexic and control listeners for voices speaking listeners’ native language or an unfamiliar language. Individuals with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities compared with controls only for voices speaking their native language. These results demonstrate the importance of linguistic representations for voice recognition. Humans appear to identify voices by making comparisons between talkers’ pronunciations of words and listeners’ stored abstract representations of the sounds in those words. Ellison Medical Foundation National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant UL1RR025758) National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship 2016-05-09T13:09:45Z 2016-05-09T13:09:45Z 2011-07 2011-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0036-8075 1095-9203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102420 Perrachione, T. K., S. N. Del Tufo, and J. D. E. Gabrieli. “Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability.” Science 333, no. 6042 (July 29, 2011): 595–595. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9149-1815 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1207327 Science Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) PMC
spellingShingle Perrachione, Tyler
Del Tufo, Stephanie N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title_full Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title_fullStr Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title_full_unstemmed Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title_short Human Voice Recognition Depends on Language Ability
title_sort human voice recognition depends on language ability
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102420
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9149-1815
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